In the past few weeks, biopics have been the source of the weirdest casting news. Ashton Kutcher is playing Steve Jobs, and Jane Fonda is playing Nancy Reagan. Now a casting choice that seemed like a PR stunt when first mentioned — Lindsay Lohan playing Elizabeth Taylor in a Lifetime movie — has come to pass, while Taylor Swift is said to be lining up to play folk and feminist icon Joni Mitchell.

On the other side of casting news, Malin Akerman is doubtful that she’ll really get the chance to play a different feminist icon, one-time porn star Linda Lovelace, in Inferno. And Eric Bana is no longer attached to play Elvis. Read More »

Even as Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman‘s Lovelace loses one star with the exit of Demi Moore, it’s gained another as Chloë Sevigny boards the cast. Sevigny will play a feminist journalist working on a piece about Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace (Amanda Seyfried) for a men’s magazine. She joins a sprawling ensemble cast that also includes Peter Sarsgaard, Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Chris Noth, Sharon Stone, Juno Temple, Debi Mazar, Wes Bentley, Romeo Brown, Robert Patrick, and Eric Roberts. A replacement is being sought for Moore, who was set for a small role as feminist icon Gloria Steinem.

The drama chronicles the life of the adult film actress, who gained worldwide fame in the ’70s before quitting her career and joining the anti-pornography movement in the ’80s. Shooting on the film is currently underway in Los Angeles, though no release date has been announced at this time. Sevigny was also recently cast in the indie drama Panarea, opposite Scott Pilgrim actor Mark Webber. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Matthew Wilder’s Inferno was the Linda Lovelace biopic we heard about first, but it seems like Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman‘s Lovelace is the one that’s moving full speed right now. Amanda Seyfried and Peter Sarsgaard were cast as the titular porn star and her husband Chuck Traynor in early November, with Sharon Stonesigning on to play Lovelace’s mother just a couple of weeks later. Then last month, Wes Bentley, Juno Temple, Hank Azaria, Bobby Cannavale, Chris Noth, Robert Patrick, and James Francoallboarded the picture as well.

Now Demi Moore, Adam Brody, and Eric Roberts have become the latest to join the drama, which is based on Eric Danville‘s book The Complete Linda Lovelace. More details after the jump.

Armie Hammer has been working his clean-cut golden boy looks to his advantage in The Social Network, J. Edgar, and the upcoming Mirror, Mirror, but the latest addition to his slate will see him transforming into a bit more of a “badass.” Hammer will bulk up and shave his head to star with Eric Bana in By Virtue Fall, a “gritty drama” about an ATF agent (Hammer) who gets framed for corruption and serves time into a maximum security prison. Once out, he’s determined to get revenge on his former partner (Bana), whom he blames for destroying his life.

The project marks the directing debut of Up in the Air co-writer Sheldon Turner, who also penned this script. By Virtue Fall is scheduled to start sometime in 2012, after Hammer wraps up Disney’s The Lone Ranger over the summer. [Deadline]

In true Hollywood fashion, after years of no biopics about Linda Lovelace, there are now two separate films in the works about the adult film star. We’ve known for months that Malin Akerman would be toplining Matthew Wilder’s take on the story, titled Inferno, and now Amanda Seyfried has entered negotiations to fill the role in Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman‘s competing version, called Lovelace. Also considering the project is Peter Sarsgaard, who is in early talks to play Lovelace’s abusive pornographer husband Chuck Traynor. More details after the jump.

It’s a big week for Olivia Wilde. Cowboys & Aliens, in which she plays a mysterious figure with an…interesting past, looks like it will open huge, despite being fairly lousy. Trailers for In Time, her film with Andrew Niccol and Justin Timberlake, are dropping left and right. And now she’s getting into porn.

Oops, wait. Olivia Wilde is possibly going to be in a movie about porn. Specifically Lovelace, the Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman film about Deep Throat star Linda Lovelace. Read More »

One of the better-received films at this year’s Sundance was Take Shelter, starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. The film is playing to good reviews at Cannes now as well, and the writer/director, Jeff Nichols, is prepping his second film. Mud, as the picture is called, has Chris Pine in talks to star as Mud, a fugitive that is assisted in his escape from an island in the Mississippi river by two 14-year old boys.

The LA Times has the news, and says, “the ambiguity of the story lies with Mud, who is both an unsavory and a redemptive character and who teaches the boys as much as he learns from them,” making the obvious and obligatory Huck Finn reference immediately afterward. Stand By Me is also name-dropped. The reviews for Take Shelter are all I need to be interested in what Jeff Nichols does next, and picking Chris Pine for a definitively non-blockbuster sort of role sounds like a good move.

After the break, Matt Dillon may beat up a pretend Linda Lovelace, and a shortlist emerges for the Great Gatsby role that Ben Affleck had to give up. Read More »

We really can’t go two days lately without a James Franco casting story. This particular story is one which might bring him back together with his Howl directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. A year ago we heard the pair were developing a film about porn star Linda Lovelace, based on Eric Danville‘s book The Complete Linda Lovelace.

And now Mr. Franco is in talks to play what would be the most unlikeable role of his career to date: Chuck Traynor, the man who discovered and married Linda Lovelace, and reportedly forced her into prostitution and threatened her at gunpoint into performing in Deep Throat. Read More »

Last night there were rumors that Lindsay Lohan might be playing ’70s porn star icon Linda Lovelace in a biopic called Inferno. She’d be taking the role that was planned for Anna Faris a couple years ago. But the film had financing problems and Faris decided (probably correctly) that starring as a porn star in a dark, financially struggling film might not be for her. Now the film’s producer has confirmed that Lohan is on board and the film will be looking for financing at Cannes.

One of the big curiosities of this year’s Sundance is Howl, the semi-biopic of poet Allen Ginsberg, which stars James Franco and was directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman. Now, just ahead of Howl‘s premiere, the duo has booked another film. They’ll make Lovelace, based on the career of iconic porn star and eventual anti-porn crusader Linda Lovelace. Read More »